CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



189 



ilized country. I acquit General Grant of com- 

 plicity in tlio whiskuy frauds and revenue 

 frainl-i. and the facts acquit Mr. Davis of com- 

 plicity in any atrocity anywhere. 



44 Now, Mr. Speaker, I pass from the construc- 

 tion of that question to the real facts about 

 Andersonvillo. First, I want to call the atten- 

 tion of the House to the law of the Confederate 

 Government on the subject of the treatment of 

 prisoners. I read from the act of the Confed- 

 erate Congress on that subject; it was very 

 simple, and directed- 

 The rations furnished prisoners of wnr shall be the 

 same in quantity und quality as those furnished to 

 enlisted inoii in tho army of the Confederacy. 



44 That was the law ; that was the law Mr. 

 Davis approved, and that was the law that ho, 

 so far as his agency was concerned, executed. 



4k The gentleman in his speech has gone so far 

 as to say that Mr. Davis purposely sent Gener- 

 al Winder to Anderson ville to organize a den 

 of horrors and kill Federal soldiers. I do not 

 quote exactly his language, but I know it is 4 to 

 organize a den of horrors ; ' but I am sure I can- 

 not use any language more bitter than the gen- 

 tleman used himself. Therefore tho n'ext thing 

 I will read is the order given for the purpose 

 of locating this prison at Anderson ville, or wher 

 ever it should be properly located. The offi- 

 cial order for the location of the stockade en- 

 joins that it should be in a 4 healthy locality, 

 with plenty of pure water, with a running 

 stream, and, if possible, with shade-trees, and 

 in the immediate neighborhood of grist and 

 saw mills.' That does not look like the organ- 

 ization of a den of horrors to commit murder. 

 That was the official order. That was not all. 

 These prisoners at Andersonville were not only 

 allowed the rations measured out to Confeder- 

 ate soldiers both in quantity and quality in 

 every respect, but they were allowed also to 

 buy as much outside as they desired ; a privi- 

 lege, I am reliably informed, which was not 

 extended to many of the Confederate prisoners. 

 I do not know how that is. 



44 1 do not wish to charge it if the facts were 

 otherwise. But in the book which the gentle- 

 man from Maine himself produces we find this 

 testimony, given by a Union soldier. He says: 



We never had any difficulty in getting vegetables : 

 we used to buy almost anything that we wanted of 

 the sergeant who called the roll mornings and 

 nights. His name was Smith, I think ; he was Cap- 

 tain Wirz'a chief sergeant. We were divided into 

 messes, eight in each mess ; my mess used to buy 

 from two to four bushels of sweet-potatoes a week, 

 at the rate of $15 Confederate money per bushel. 



" They got $20 of Confederate money for $1 of 

 greenbacks in those days. 



Turnips we bought at $20 a bushel. We had to 

 buy our own soap for washing our own persons and 

 clothing; we bought meat and eggs and biscuit. 

 There seemed to be an abundance of those things ; 

 they were in the market constantly. That sergeant 

 used to come down with a wagon-load of potatoes at 

 a time, bringing twenty or twenty-five bushels at a 

 K>d sometimes. 



44 Now, eir, Mr. Davis himself alluded to thai 

 privilege which was allowed to the Federal 

 Hnldicri*. The Confederate authorities not only 

 allowed them to purchase supplier a they 

 pleased outside, in addition to the rations ill- 

 lowed them by law the same rations allowed 

 to Confederate soldiers but he says : 



By an indulgence perhaps unprecedented, we have 

 oven allowed the prisoners in our hands to be sup- 

 plied by their friends at home with comforts not en- 

 joyed by the men who captured them in battle. 



44 The Confederate Government gave Federal 

 prisoners the same rations that Confederate sol- 

 diers in the field received. Federal prisoners 

 had permission to buy whatever else they 

 pleased, and the Confederates gave their friends 

 at home permission to furnish them the means 

 to do BO. And yet, Mr. Speaker, it is true that, 

 in spite of all these advantages enjoyed by 

 these prisoners, there were horrors, and great 

 horrors, at Andersonville. What were the causes 

 of those horrors ? The first was want of medi- 

 cine. That is given as a cause by Dr. Jones in 

 his testimony ; that is given by this very Fa- 

 ther Hamilton, from whom the gentleman from 

 Maine read. In the very same testimony 

 which the gentleman read Father Hamilton 

 says : 



I conversed with Dr. White with regard to the con- 

 dition of the mi'ii, and he told me it was not in his 

 power to do anything for them ; that ho had no medi- 

 cine, and could not get any, and that he was doing 

 everything in his power to help them. 



4 ' Now, how was it that medicines and other 

 essential supplies could not be obtained ? Un- 

 fortunately, they were not in the Confederacy. 

 The Federal Government made medicine con- 

 traband of war. And I am not aware that any 

 other nation on the earth ever did such a thing 

 before not even the Duke of Alva, sir. The 

 Confederate Government, unable to introduce 

 medicines according to its right under the laws 

 of nations, undertook to run the blockade, and 

 whenever possible the Federal Navy captured 

 its ships and took the medicines. Then, when 

 no other resource was left, when it was sus- 

 pected that the women of the North the 

 earth's angels, God bless them! would carry 

 quinine and other medicines of that sort, so 

 much needed by the Federal prisoners in the 

 South, Federal officers were charged to capture 

 the women and examine their petticoats, to 

 keep them from carrying medicines to Confed- 

 erate soldiers and to Federal prisoners, and they 

 were imprisoned. Surely, sir, the Confederate 

 Government and the Southern people are not to 

 be blamed for a poverty in medicines, food, and 

 raiment, enforced by the stringent war meas- 

 ures of the Federal Government a poverty 

 which had its intended effect of immeasurable 

 distress to the Confederate armies, although it 

 incidentally inflicted unavoidable distress upon 

 the Federal prisoners in the South. 



''The Federal Government made clothing con- 

 traband of war. It sent down its armies and 

 they burned up the factories of the South 



